Volume 3, No. 41 October 24, 2003
Four reviews in four minutes A Review By John Bennett Across the hall from my office is SCAD Radio’s “new music loading dock.” This is the area where the station’s music directors, Colin Alexander and Molly Evans, rip open hundreds of padded envelopes to find CDs and LPs. It’s like Christmas happens two or three times a week. Their job is to listen to everything and decide which recordings will be heard on SCAD Radio. While they weren’t looking, I nabbed some of the recently arrived disks. These recordings could end up on the air (pending approval from Alexander and Evans). ‘A Lil’ Light,’ Dudley Perkins (Stone’s Throw) Semi-obscure West Coast hip-hop figure Dudley Perkins sings and slurs his way through 16 numbers with Madlib at the helm. This is yet another release that reconfirms one half of Stone’s Throw’s split personality status as the headquarters of way underground, left coast hip-hop. The other half is the label’s increasingly important role as a repository for all-but-forgotten funk artifacts. ‘Bird Up — The Charlie Parker Remix Project,’ Various Artists (Savoy Jazz) Madlib’s other recent project “Shades of Blue: Madlib Invades Blue Note” (Blue Note Records) finds him remixing the work of Horace Silver, Donald Byrd and Bobby Hutcherson, with pleasing results. The opposite approach is taken with “Bird Up,” on which multiple remixers zero in on the work on a single artist: Charlie Parker. Among those who try their hands at reinterpreting Yardbird are RZA, Rob Swift, Dan the Automator and El-P. While some would say Madlib’s tampering with the work of Herbie Hancock borders on disrespectful, the stakes are considerably higher on “Bird Up.” The opportunity to dumb down the work of a bonafide musical icon lurks around every corner of this 13-track release. ‘Show Me Your Tears,’ Frank Black & The Catholics (spinART) By my count, this is Frank Black’s 78th solo release and it arrives amid the backdrop of persistent rumors of a Pixies reunion concert tour and recording. Seriously, though, he’s been impressively prolific, though not always consistent. “Show Me Your Tears” brings some new Catholics onboard and features multiple production credits. I was most intrigued by the tracks produced by Stan Ridgeway, best known as front man for Wall of Voodoo. This recording also continues Black’s tradition of shockingly awful cover art. A Pixies reunion may be the only thing that can save him from bad design. ‘Lost in Translation’ Soundtrack, Various Artists (Emperor Norton) I saw the trailer for Sophia Coppola’s new film one morning, featuring Elvis Costello’s “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding.” Curiously, that song is not on the soundtrack. I suppose that network television viewers might have been overwhelmed by the sonic power of My Bloody Valentine’s “Sometimes” (which is on the soundtrack) at 8 a.m. Hearing a selection from one of the most important rock records of the last 20 years (that most Americans have never heard) during a commercial break on the “Today,” would have made it a morning to remember. There’s plenty of other good stuff on the soundtrack as well including work by Kevin Shields (the man behind MBV), Squarepusher and French pop outfit Air, who composed the soundtrack to Coppola’s “The Virgin Suicides.”
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